Without sufficient water resources and adequate physical infrastructure, advances in education and healthcare service provision cannot make their full impact. The Water Management and Community Physical Infrastructure Programme supports vulnerable communities by reducing risk factors and improving social, economic and environmental security.

“It is not enough to build physical infrastructure. You need to develop sustainable mechanisms as well.”

The objectives of the Water Management and Community Physical Infrastructure Programme are achieved by:

Providing water conservation schemes

Drip irrigation

Water harvesting

Small dams

Building physical infrastructure

Water supply schemes and irrigation channels

Micro hydro power projects

Link roads, pathways and footbridges

Storm/waste water drains

Sanitation facilities

Retaining walls

• Facilitating coordination between communities and government departments
• Mainstreaming gender
• Building social capital

Featured Project
Integrated Area Uplift Programme Chakothi

Situated at the upper end of the Jhelum Valley in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, only 2.5 km away from the Line of Control that demarcates the border between Pakistan and India, Chakothi is no stranger to misfortune. Victims of cross border shelling and the even greater tragedy of the 2005 earthquake that devastated the area, the community had little hope of recovery.

"We thought we had a thousand pasts and no future," said a village elder, "but today we feel that our past was a bad dream and our future is bright and hopeful."

This change in perception is the result of the integrated development work undertaken by MGPO and financed by the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund in the wake of the 2005 earthquake. Protective of its new facilities, the community guards its schools and health centre with a watchful eye. It is proud of its paved walkways, branched line water supply scheme, drainage system, filtration plant and waste collection bins.

The need for peace to maintain their newly found prosperity is not lost on the community.

"We will not grant space in our midst to any vested interest groups with ulterior motives who aim to put our buildings and our future at risk," is the unanimous view.

"Development negates the urge to war; in other words, it is a potent weapon for peace," says a woman who lost her husband in an incident of cross border of violence.